Wild Air project in Zionsville will be developer’s largest yet

Construction is set to begin this summer on a 260-acre development in Zionsville that will bring nearly 700 new homes to a once-rural area of the Boone County town.

Wild Air, a project planned by Carmel-based Old Town Cos., will be built about 2-1/2 miles west of downtown Zionsville on farmland north of the intersection of West Oak Street and Marysville Road. The project will feature 386 single-family houses, some priced up to $3 million; 290 apartments; 15,000 square feet of retail space; a senior-living community; 30 acres of preserved woodland with trails; 10 acres of civic space; and a dog park.

Old Town CEO Justin Moffett told IBJ the $500 million Wild Air will be the company’s most extensive project to date. He expects the development to take about seven years to complete.

“I think that Zionsville as a community has been patient with us and listened well and has been a collaborative partner helping us bring this initial vision to reality,” Moffett said. “So, our goal is to now move into execution phase and deliver on the promise of a quality development.”

Wild Air will be built on property formerly owned by the late Elizabeth Johnson, who also raised and bred thoroughbred racehorses and hosted equestrian events at her 250-acre Wild Air Farms about 2 miles southwest of this site, on Hunt Club Road near Interstate 65. Johnson died in 2022 at age 94, and her family still operates Wild Air Farms.

Old Town’s Wild Air site has a house, barn, farmland and wooded areas. Demolition and tree-clearing have already started, and more extensive site work will begin this month. Moffett said pads will be ready for home foundations by spring.

“For us, it was an honor to be selected by the Johnsons, and we feel a strong sense of responsibility to them to execute well on the plans,” Moffett said. “But, also, even though we have a local reputation as a quality builder, we want to make sure that we execute well for the town of Zionsville, as well.”

Zac Johnson said his grandmother lived at the site for 70 years. A row of evergreen trees planted more than 60 years ago by his grandfather Sylvester will be preserved.

Johnson, city councilor in Anchorage, Alaska, still spends time in Zionsville and said his family reviewed about a dozen development proposals before determining Old Town’s plan fit best with what family members want to see on the property. He declined to provide the property’s sale price but said Old Town’s offer was not the highest.

“It was a really beautiful place,” Johnson said. “Certainly, the land is changing from what it was, but we wanted to look for ways to maintain a connection between its history and the place it’s becoming.”

Moffett said he thinks the Wild Air site is “exceptional for many reasons.” The vetting process for Old Town lasted about four months.

“It’s not lost on me that it was a privilege to be granted the opportunity,” he said. “It’s been a more meaningful project than some others we have been involved with because of the connection we built with the Johnson family, and our teams worked hard to honor their family legacy there.”

Old Town, founded in 2009, primarily works in the northern suburbs. The company’s development portfolio includes Sun King Spirits and the Allied Solutions headquarters at Midtown Plaza in Carmel, the Federal Hill Apartments in Noblesville and Union Square at Grand Junction, which is under construction in Westfield.

Wild Air will be Old Town Cos.’ first development in Zionsville. The company’s homebuilding arm—Old Town Design Group—has experience in Zionsville building custom houses.

Old Town Design Group has worked with Westfield-based Henke Development Group to design and build houses in Zionsville at Holliday Farms, a 600-acre golf community west of Michigan Road, between Willow Road and 146th Street, and Promontory, a 321-acre private lake community on the town’s rural north side.

Building a community

Wild Air will feature six neighborhoods with varying housing types.

Large and medium-size custom homes are planned on the west side of Marysville Road in neighborhoods called Saddleridge Estates and Oakview Park. The houses designed and built by Old Town Design Group will range in size from 2,800 to 5,000 square feet. They will be priced from $1.2 million to $3 million.

Moffett compared the custom homes that will be built at Wild Air with those at Holliday Farms and Promontory.

“I believe our market perception of our brand is a luxury builder and developer, and so I think that carried a little weight as we went into the process—that we had some credibility,” he said.

On the east side of Marysville Road, Marysville Crossing will be the central hub of Wild Air and feature apartments, retail, a community clubhouse and recreation space with a swimming pool. Moffett said Marysville Crossing will feature local businesses and “neighborhood-oriented restaurant operators.”

“It’s all boutique, local. We’re not targeting any of the big national brands at all,” he said. “We’re a firm believer that food and beverage create energy and activity in our communities, and so we work really hard to develop partnerships with local operators.”

Adjacent to Marysville Crossing will be Wild Air Trails, which will feature single-family houses and two- and three-story town houses built by Old Town Design Group and Houston-based David Weekley Homes.

On the northeast side of Wild Air, Legacy Woods will have single-family houses built by David Weekley Homes.

The single-family houses will have 1,800 to 3,000 square feet and be priced from $500,000 to $900,000. Most of the town houses will be priced at $500,000 to $650,000, while some three-story units will be available to rent at around $3,000 per month.

Zionsville-based ILADD Inc., a not-for-profit that provides services for more than 100 adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, will build its Crossbridge Point residential community south of Legacy Woods. The community will have 18 for-sale residences for ILADD’s clients.

Old Town will hold a lottery on Aug. 21 for people interested in purchasing a home lot in Saddleridge Estates and Wild Air Trails, which will be included in the first two phases of construction, along with Marysville Crossing and Crossbridge Point.

“We wanted to create a platform where people could register in advance with interest and then be selected for their opportunity to pick a lot without any risk of playing favorites among the builders,” Moffett said. “It’s just a way to be as fair as possible for people that want to pick their lot.”

About 30 acres of woodland will be preserved on the southwest side of Wild Air and become a park with trails and facilities for residents.

Mayor John Stehr was president of the Zionsville Board of Parks and Recreation when Old Town introduced Wild Air last year.

“I think [the preserved area] is a real win,” Stehr said. “As far as how the rest of it has evolved, I think there’s a recognition that that land was going to develop. It’s, as you can see, a pretty extensive plan.”

The remainder of the site toward the intersection of West Oak Street and Marysville Road will feature a dog park and a future senior-living center. Old Town will dedicate 10 acres closest to the intersection for use by the town where a community center is envisioned.

Rural past

Johnson described the Zionsville of his grandmother’s youth as a place where she could ride a horse from one end of town to another without crossing a busy road. Elizabeth Johnson moved from Indianapolis to Zionsville following World War II. She competed in horse shows around the country, including at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

“She was very passionate about horses, and so Zionsville in the 1940s was the best place to be, in her mind, for that,” Johnson said. “To be honest, none of her family thought she would actually want to stay in Zionsville. It was going to be too rural and too quiet and boring for her, but she certainly proved them wrong and then was really closely connected to that community for many, many years.”

In Zionsville, Elizabeth Johnson established the Traders Point Hunt Charity Horse Show, which featured international talent and 1,000 horses at Wild Air Farms during the event’s peak.

“It was her vision and passion, and I can say that I think darn near every day of her life where she wasn’t recuperating from some horse-related injury, she was getting up on a horse and riding, often multiple times throughout the day,” Johnson said.

Wild Air’s location between Zionsville’s historic Village and the Interstate 65 corridor meant it would be a prime spot for development. The town’s population has nearly doubled twice this century, going from 8,775 in 2000 to 14,160 in 2010 to 30,603 in 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Johnson said his father, Johnny, started the process of looking for a developer more than a decade ago when he recognized that change was coming to Zionsville and the family’s property “was not ideally suited as an equestrian-centered residential property.” Johnny Johnson died in 2021.

“He had a vision about wanting a place with a strong community, and so he kind of started the conversation,” he said.

Moffett noted the rarity of finding a site the size of Wild Air in a location with Zionsville’s growth potential.

“It’s unique to find a property of that scale in what we would say is a strategic growth location,” he said. “It’s really the culmination of us having a lot of learning experiences over the last 15 years as a brand in this market, so I think we are bringing some of our better ideas and our best work to this project.”•